All-DaSilva Team: NCAA Division I Women

It’s that time of year. Preseason’s greetings!
Lacrosse Magazine will release its preseason rankings in the
January issue, but one of the things we don’t do is preseason
All-Americans – we limit ourselves to Preseason Players of
the Year, which, to be honest, is tough enough to deliberate and
find a consensus.

(Look no further than LMO’s
fan poll that ended Monday, the results of which will also be
published in January.)

As an experiment, Jac Coyne and Matt DaSilva have developed their
own preseason All-American teams – with a twist. We’re
not looking for the best player at every position. Rather,
we’re trying to construct the best team, blending styles and
strengths. We want to devise a team that cannot be defeated in a
15-minute game with any combination of the remaining players in
their division.

Think we’ve erred? Think you can do better? You can try to
whip up a different combination of players at their designated
positions (and post them in the comments section below) without
using ours, but we promise, you won’t win.

Check back to LMO see our unbeatable squads from the MCLA ranks
up through NCAA Division I men and women.

If Kelly Haggerty could make Alayna Markwordt look like the second
coming of Katrina Dowd, think about what she could do with the real
thing. I’m envisioning cross-crease feeds from Haggerty to
Dowd, with “Trix” finishing in style as only she can.
Those few times Haggerty and Dowd don’t connect? That’s
where Lauren Dykstra comes in. Dykstra plays in the Patriot League,
often overlooked in preseason and postseason honors, but she led
the nation with 82 ground balls in 2009 – the next closest
had 68. She’s a virtual vacuum. Dykstra’s 67 goals are
nothing to sneeze at either, good for fourth in Division I. She
knows her role with the All-DaSilva team: rebounds and garbage
goals.

My midfield banks on Hillary Fratzke returning to form after being
shelved with a knee injury in ’09. A healthy Fratzke is one
of the most dominant forces in the game. The 2008 CAA Player of the
Year led the conference that year in points, draw controls, ground
balls and turnovers. Yeah, Fratzke kind of does it all – but
I’m reveling in all the extra possessions she’ll garner
inside the draw circle. She’s the best draw-to-self
specialist around, but also has plenty able hands on deck around
her.

Not the least of those are Jenn Russell and Caitlyn McFadden,
arguably the two most complete players in college women’s
lacrosse. Russell will line up at defensive midfield for the
All-DaSilva Team – with all of my scoring ability up front, I
need a scrapper on the other side of the restraining line. But I
dare you to lock off the outlets when Russell has the ball.
She’ll burn you in transition. When Haggerty is not
initiating the offense from behind, McFadden will initiate it from
up top.

Rounding out my midfield are Cara Filipelli and Jackie Lyons. If
you watch Filipelli play, one word comes to mind: relentless. You
might look to lull my defense to sleep with long, drawn out
possessions. (Heck, with the horses I’ve got up front, I
can’t blame you for trying to keep the ball out of their
sticks.) But Filipelli is a disruptive force on midfield defense.
She caused 39 turnovers, tied for sixth nationally with All-DaSilva
teammate and pure defender Sarah Jonson. Lyons, a 2009-10 U.S.
Developmental team member, gives me another clutch scorer. Seven
game-winning goals for UMass in ’09 – the girl’s
got ice in her veins.

Bridget Noon, a returning first-team All-American, has flourished
under Ricky Fried at Georgetown. She’s my best sheer
defender, anchoring a unit that includes Jonson – a Texas
native who plays with attitude – and Alex Mundy.
Mundy’s speed is her best asset. Good luck trying to beat her
from the corners.

As with other All-DaSilva teams, I’m looking to pressure on
defense. Sometimes that means yielding quality scoring
opportunities. I’m OK with those with Erin Tochihara as my
goalie. I almost drafted Logan Ripley, a first-team All-American
who helped lead North Carolina to the NCAA championship game last
spring. But Ripley’s Swiss cheese impression against
Northwestern, combined with her curious absence from fall ball,
made me go with Tochihara, a second-team All-American. Tochihara
came out of the same Colorado high school program as former
Dartmouth great and U.S. World Cup goalie Devon Wills, and she
plays out of the same mold – athletic, rangy and timely with
her stops. Her .525 save percentage ranked fourth nationally and
was the best of any goalie from the upper-echelon teams.